The climate scientists were right

Fifty years ago, climate scientists sounded the alarm about global warming due to the burning of fossil fuels. They predicted that the world would gradually warm as carbon pollution continued to rise, causing higher average temperatures, more drought, heat waves, wildfires and more extreme weather events such as severe storms and flooding. The train of human-caused climate change would accelerate down a sloping track.

Fast forward fifty years. The scientists were right: more record temperatures around the world, drought and wildfires in some locations, flooding in others. Oregon and the west have not been spared. “Weird” weather events seem to be happening more frequently with greater effect. It is our “new normal”.

But if you don’t like it now, wait a few years. Unabated, our “normal” will be much worse. We can’t rely on the federal government to act, so it’s up to the states and localities. The Oregon Legislative Joint Interim Committee on Carbon Reduction has been meeting for months working on the problem. Under the Clean Energy Jobs bill, carbon pollution would be limited through a market-based cap and invest plan. Proceeds would be invested in Oregon’s low carbon transition.